Tim Banks is the CEO of APM, a Canada wide construction and property development company, with its head office in Charlottetown, PEI. My family has lived on PEI for over eight generations and I was born at the Prince County Hospital in Summerside, PEI. I am hoping someone will soon develop a blood test to authenticate when you actually become an "Islander" as I am still having problems explaining where I'm from?

Friday, January 15, 2010

There's a lot of issues in this World and surely this one ranks right up there for the folks at City Hall and it's no surprise to me in reading this story that the two names that stick out here are Tweel and Devine... I'm guessing the reason members of the congregation didn't show up at the last meeting was they couldn't stomach turning the other cheek but I think I've got a great solution... put a couple of these folks from Council on a "slow boat to China"... and just maybe they'd miss the November election....The lyrics for "Slow Boat to China" start:I'd love to get you On a slow boat to China, All to myself alone. Get you to keep you in my arms evermore, Leave all your lovers Weeping on the faraway shore.

Frank Loesser wrote and circulated the song in 1945, but did not get a copyright until 1948.Where did he get the phrase? His daughter, Susan Loesser, author of a biography of her father, A Most Remarkable Fella (1993), writes:

"I'd like to get you on a slow boat to China" was a well-known phrase among poker players, referring to a person who lost steadily and handsomely. My father turned it into a romantic song, placing the title in the mainstream of catch-phrases in 1947.The idea, of course, was that traveling by boat to China was about as long and slow a trip as one could imagine. Loesser moved the phrase from the poker table to a more romantic setting. The song was very popular in its time (and has been revived and sung from time to time over the years by such notables as Kay Kyser, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Buffett, and Frank Sinatra, among others). The phrase then moved into general parlance to mean anything that takes a lonnnnnnng time.

15/01/10Historic Charlottetown church's appeal for glass in new doors rejected by councilEDITORIAL STAFFThe GuardianTrinity United Church in Charlottetown is not getting another chance to request windows for its new front doors. It appealed to Charlottetown City Council for reconsideration of a council decision last October but the appeal was denied at the January council meeting this week. The church wants to replace existing large sliding doors because of terrible drafts from the entry system in the winter, said Coun. Kim Devine, chair of the planning and heritage committee for the city. “Heritage board approved new doors that swing out,” she said. “What the church asked for, they applied to Heritage Board for, was to put glass panels in the doors.” It was that request for glass that was rejected. Coun. Mitchell Tweel told council that no one from Trinity Church was at the planning board meeting where the reconsideration was discussed and rejected. “As you know it is an historical church in our city,” said Tweel. “Since this is second go-around, I just wonder if there is some kind of a compromise or solution that the city and hopefully Trinity Church and the congregation can live with.” Heritage board has meet with the church on more that one occasion regarding the issue, said Devine. “(The church) came to at least two meetings, that I can recall, where we did discuss solutions,” she said. “We discussed solutions like security cameras,” said Devine. “We discussed security solutions like pin-holes in the doors so that they can see members of the congregation coming up. We discussed at the last planning board meeting an interior vestibule that would not change the look of the doors. “You are absolutely right about the historic importance of that church, Councillor Tweel. It is the oldest church in the city. It was built around the time of Confederation, 1864, and the doors are very significant, character-defining element of that church. “Heritage board feels that on a church of such importance in the city, that we do need to maintain the historical elements that define the integrity of that building.” The appeal was rejected because there was no new information or doubt about the correctness of the original decision, said Devine.